Tuesday 17 May 2011 19.15 EDT
First published on Tuesday 17 May 2011 19.15 EDT

• So: the thorny, stormy relationship between MPs and the expenses watchdog Ipsa: how's that going? Sadly, not too well. It is a coupling plagued by ill-feeling, suspicion and ghosts from the past: ghosts resurrected just this week by the appearance in court of Lord Hanningfield, facing allegations that he claimed for travel to parliament when in fact he was in mid-air on his way to India. In such an atmosphere, no transgression goes unnoticed, mistakes are amplified. And this is what happened when a clutch of MPs signed on to claim their legitimate expenses, and found that they could not log on to the system, at least not without a fight, because Ipsa had allowed its security certificate to lapse. "The certificate purchased was valid for 12 months and it reached its expiry date," the authority admitted when quizzed by Tory Priti Patel. No one kept tabs on it and the renewal notice was mistakenly sent elsewhere. "An assessment of the risks was undertaken by our managed service provider, Calyx, at the time," says Ipsa. "The risk was deemed to be low and security levels were not diminished." But still MPs are jumpy. Trust us, officials say. This problem will not be repeated. Alas, that trust is no longer there.

• I am certainly not a little Englander, protests dogged Ukipian Christine Williams after being so described in our story about her battle to stop Anjem Choudary appearing at the thinkers' festival How the Light Gets In next week. I'm Welsh, she protests. And that's not quite true: she was born in Southport. But she married a Welsh farmer and insists she knows the words to Men of Harlech. That does seem to satisfy most of the usual identity requirements. But whatever the truth of the matter, she's focused on the fight to stop the so-called "preacher of hate" taking his place among the chattering classes. "We are going to have a picket," she tells me. "We'll make sure everyone knows what kind of man he is." What about free speech, we ask? "I am sorry," says Christine. "I am not very politically correct. Free speech has its limits." We wouldn't be able to say rude things about his country, says Christine. This is his country, we tell her. He was born in Welling, Kent; but we agree that this is unlikely in itself to have caused such monumental disgruntlement. Thereafter, we agree to disagree.

• For if Choudary, with his rabble-rousing and demands for the immediate introduction of sharia is a problem, he is our problem. As a liberal democracy and broad church, we must deal with him as best we can. One major employer we know of resolved to test the commitment of his staff by having them line up by the Severn bridge to sing Men of Harlech. One cannot know if that exercise wedded them to the collective identity. Made him laugh though.

• Further to the attempt by Haringey Trades Council to bestow the freedom of the north London borough upon the soon-to-be-70 Bob Dylan, we hear from reader Dave McCarthy with an account of what transpired when first the singer travelled to see his friend Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics. "The cab drops him at Crouch End Hill instead of Crouch Hill. Bob knocks on door of Dave the plumber, who is out, but Mrs Dave explains he'll be back soon and makes him a cup of tea. When Dave gets home she tells him 'Bob Dylan's come to see you, I've put him in the front room'." This may be apocryphal, warns McCarthy. And we see that Dylanologists have long tried but failed to run it to ground. If it isn't true, it should be.

• Finally, late on to the bandwagon but welcome nonetheless: let's hear it for Dr Kristofer Janiec, managing director of elitemedicaltravel.co.uk, who arrives with a wedding gift for the Duke of Cambridge. "I am pleased to announce that our agency offers His Royal Highness Prince William Duke of Cambridge a paid, all-inclusive hair transplantation at our exclusive Warsaw clinic. Our congratulations and very best wishes." Nice try Dr Janiec, but sorry, William knows better than to go anywhere near this sort of attention-seeking initiative. Try Princess Michael of Kent. Definitely Fergie.